Possible first earth-like plan­et "super- Earth" found out­side our So­lar Sys­tem

New image.



Explanation: The faint, unremarkable star centered in this skyview is Gliese 581, a mere 20 light-years away toward the constellation Libra. But astronomers are now reporting the discovery of a remarkable system of three planets orbiting Gliese 581, including the most earth-like planet found beyond our solar system. Gliese 581 itself is not a sun-like star, though. Classified as a red dwarf, the star is much smaller and colder than the Sun. Still, the smallest planet known to orbit the star is estimated to be five times as massive as Earth with about 1.5 times Earth's diameter. That super-earth orbits once every 13 days, about 14 times closer to its parent star than the Earth-Sun distance. The close-in orbit around the cool star implies a mean surface temperature of between 0 and 40 degrees C - a range over which water would be liquid - and places the planet in the red dwarf's habitable zone.

[edit on 25-4-2007 by Donoso]

Anyone else think they were TOLD by aliens where to look? I do.

Wonder what they traded for that kind of information?

I think they have been searching for some time now, why is it so hard to think that they finaly found something on their own research.

[edit on 26-4-2007 by pepsi78]

Originally posted by yeti101
Others say the side in permanent day would just get fried over million of years and the dark side would freeze. :/

Well then the effect must be visible now, since the planet is billions of years old. But I agree, im also optimistic...

I guess we would just have to build resorts and production on the sunny side, habitation on the brim and discos on the dark side

Imagine finding homo erectus type beings there...we can manipulate their DNA to create homo sapiens like US!!!! lol then they will call us their GODS!!

This could be an interesting thought, but could we take a moment off and think the other way around? For some reason humans tend to think we are very special and far developed beyond anything we could find elsewhere... ok, I get that assumption from that notion that when talk space travel people always say "I wonder when we could go there"... instead of "I wonder when they are gonna come here".

I read somewhere that this planet was even older than the earth, so that would mean, if we assume that life on earth is merely a standart development of species over time, that they are far beyond us already. Pending ofcourse that they had no encounters with planet killers or on earth exstinction level events.

Isn't it more likely that a posible population on this planet would be the ones to come by for a cup of coffee and not the other way around?

[edit on 26/4/07 by flice]

Imagine the first expedition to the planet..

Since the star is very old and has been stable for quite sometime, I expect many(if not one) species would have evolved, become sentient and lived the duration of their prime.
There would be interesting ruins, an archeological goldmine!

If anybody's played Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri(SMAC) and/or Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire(SMAX), this would be a dejavous of sorts


And yea.. why are people saying that the planet is tidally locked to the star?
As far as I know, no info has been released on its rotational behaviour, only Gliese revolution cycles.

the experts say planets in the HZ around red dwarfs will be tidally locked. Like our moon is to earth. Of course there is a chance it could be spinning but its highly unlikely.

Lets make it clear- this planet sucks

These astronomers are jazzing it up big time. Example:

"temps are between 0-40 degrees C" while thats not a lie its ceratinly not a fact. They only know the distance the planet is from the star. They have no clue about the planets atmosphere therefor cannot give an accurate surface temp. MARS is in our habitable zone but is average -63C due to the thin atmosphere

This planet could have no atmosphere making it cold or a runaway greenhouse atmosphere like venus making it 250C on the surface. They dont have a clue any temps are just guesses.

" we expect to find water on the surface" now english isnt the guys first language but he should say "its possible there is water on the surface" again not enough info to say "we expect" all theyre basing it on is those temperature guesses.

This planet is still way too big to be usefull for advanced life as we know it. Any ligfe would be quite sqaushed on the surface.

So for fylers fan who thinks we bought the info of ET- if we did i would want a refund.


Its good its got people interested. The next few years will be really exciting once we start to find true earth type planets. These guys need funding etc they have to jazz it up.

i think this new planet is very suitable for kids if earth went wrong and not able for living anymore, kids can be sent there when they are just 2 years if we human created some travel craft that fast as lite, then they can get there young ready for life

Originally posted by yeti101

This planet is still way too big to be usefull for advanced life as we know it. Any ligfe would be quite sqaushed on the surface.

What an ironic statement. You say "life as we know it" but then go on to say any life would be squashed by the gravity. It's only 5g's and while a little uncomfortable for us, it isn't far fetched to imagine a lifeform that could survive and flourish in such an environment.

Originally posted by yeti101
the experts say planets in the HZ around red dwarfs will be tidally locked. Like our moon is to earth. Of course there is a chance it could be spinning but its highly unlikely.

Could you give us a layman's explanation of how this hypothesis was reached?
All I know about is the rudimentary workings of the radial velocity method


[edit on 26-4-2007 by Daedalus3]

theory about tidal locking has been generaly accepted since the 1970s. Our moon is the best example we have.

remember this planet is so close to the star it orbits it in 18 days meaning it is most certainly tidaly locked. en.wikipedia.org...

somebody ahs already added the new planet to that page on wiki. "Gliese 581 c may be tidally locked to its parent star Gliese 581" i would substitute "may" for "most likely" but anything is possible.




[edit on 26-4-2007 by yeti101]

Originally posted by yeti101
theory about tidal locking has been generaly accepted since the 1970s. Our moon is the best example we have.

remember this planet is so close to the star it orbits it in 18 days meaning it is most certainly tidaly locked. en.wikipedia.org...

somebody ahs already added the new planet to that page on wiki. "Gliese 581 c may be tidally locked to its parent star Gliese 581" i would substitute "may" for "most likely" but anything is possible.

[edit on 26-4-2007 by yeti101]

Hmm..
yea..
but here's another thing..
You said that Mars was in the HZ of Sol.

This pic from the wiki you linked says otherwise:

If gravity is that srong on the planet and if there is life on that planet what kind would it be, I would sure feel like 200 kilograms there, and I'm not fat at all here on earth.

You said that Mars was in the HZ of Sol.

my bad its just outside, venus is on the edge,

i got mixed up by a paper i read recently which said if venus & mars swapped positions venus could be habitable becuase of its size & type of atmosphere.

The point i was making was the HZ is not an exact science its just one part of having a habitable world. The planets atmosphere & composition decides what the temps are aswell as position from the star.

dotn forget the HZ changes over time. In 900 million years earth will be too hot for water on the surface becuase the sun gets hotter as it ages. In future mankind will have to move of this planet to survive. Or build some contraption to stop the heat.


[edit on 26-4-2007 by yeti101]

If life forms can adapt to the extreme pressures and tempretures at the bottom of our oceans, life could certainly survive on a higher G world.

One thing I have not seen discussed is the existence of a magnetic field and it's need to shield a planet's surface from radiation. My understanding is that if it were not for our earths protective magnetic fields, that the earths surface would be barren due to radiation from the sun. Perhaps this is another one of those egocentric "life elsewhere must be like life here" statements.

Now, a hypothetical question:

I build a space craft with a propulsion device capable of accelerating my ship to .95 of light speed. Time wise, to an observer on earth, it will take me 4 years to reach that velocity. To the same observer, it will take me 4 years to slow back down. How long would it actually seem to me that I will be traveling? My understanding is that the faster I go, the more time slows for me. A trip to a point 20 light years in distance, at near light speed, will take less than 20years, from my (the space traveler) perspective. Is this accurate?

redfish

i dont know about taking 4 years to get to that speed, but yes time would seem to go slower for you from an outside perspective.

when you reached the planet people on earth would have aged much more than you.

The Gliese 581 super-Earth is in what scientists call the "Goldilocks Zone" where temperatures "are just right" for life to have a chance to exist.

I found some info about the"Goldilocks Zone" which is quite interesting:

The Goldilocks Zone seemed a remarkably small region of space. It didn't even include the whole Earth. All life known in those days was confined to certain limits: no colder than Antarctica (penguins), no hotter than scalding water (desert lizards), no higher than the clouds (eagles), no lower than a few mines (deep mine microbes).

In the past 30 years, however, our knowledge of life in extreme environments has exploded. Scientists have found microbes in nuclear reactors, microbes that love acid, microbes that swim in boiling-hot water. Whole ecosystems have been discovered around deep sea vents where sunlight never reaches and the emerging vent-water is hot enough to melt lead.

The Goldilocks Zone is bigger than we thought.

To find out how big, researchers are going deeper, climbing higher, and looking in the nooks and crannies of our own planet. Searching for life in the Universe is one of NASA's most important research activities. Finding extreme life here on Earth tells us what kind of conditions might suit life "out there."

The Goldilocks Zone

Wikipedia

yeah the "goldilocks zone" is another name for the "habitable zone" HZ in my previous posts

Originally posted by yeti101
redfish

i dont know about taking 4 years to get to that speed, but yes time would seem to go slower for you from an outside perspective.

when you reached the planet people on earth would have aged much more than you.

I was making up a hypothetical situation. More of a thought excercise than reality. Theoretical light speed travel can get confusing. Moreso after reading some of Stephen Hawkings books.

Originally posted by stumason
What an ironic statement. You say "life as we know it" but then go on to say any life would be squashed by the gravity. It's only 5g's and while a little uncomfortable for us, it isn't far fetched to imagine a lifeform that could survive and flourish in such an environment.

Yup. The inhabitants would just be short. And since it's sun is a red dwarf, maybe they would be green! Little Green Men!

The inhabitants would just be short. And since it's sun is a red dwarf, maybe they would be green! Little Green Men!

haha nice one ! Also plants could be diffirent colours becuase of the spectral type of red dwarfs. They say purple would be the best

little green men with purple plants heh truth maybe stranger than fiction.

[edit on 26-4-2007 by yeti101]

Originally posted by yeti101
yeah the "goldilocks zone" is another name for the "habitable zone" HZ in my previous posts

Isnt the GZ referring to a biome on a planet and the HZ referring to the area around a star that would best support a habitable planet?